tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15796500429705286832018-12-21T01:41:34.803-08:00blackoystercatcherRick Prelinger's blogblackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-60125942085958718682013-03-17T22:02:00.002-07:002013-03-17T22:02:28.833-07:00Call It Home, our 1993 laserdisc on history of suburbia, reissuedIn 1993 I collaborated with architect, playwright and professor Keller Easterling to make <i>Call It Home: The House That Private Enterprise Built,</i>&nbsp;a history of suburbia and suburban planning in the U.S. The project took the form of an interactive archival documentary on laserdisc that held some 55 minutes of historical footage, 2,800 still images, a narration and contextual soundtrack, and two tracks of archival audio. The disc was accompanied by a lengthy booklet of program notes that contained an index to the collection and a comparative atlas of suburban town designs. The disc was published by The Voyager Company, whom many of you will know as the partner and joint parent of the Criterion Collection.<br /><br />From Easterling's description:<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The material resets the story of suburbia in the US by focusing on its origins in the depression rather than the post war era. Originally conceived as an economic instrument to stabilize banks and a flagship industry capable of providing jobs, the early suburban house was poised to become both the germ of explosive post war exurban growth and the economic indicator that it remains today. <i>Call it Home</i> provides evidence of suburbia’s DNA in: New Deal planning, federal promotion of home ownership, FHA protocols for community, prefabrication experiments, new construction technologies, the Interstate Highway, early marketing techniques, and the styling of domestic interiors among many other things. Viewers can navigate the DVD as either a continuous set of footage sequences or as a more contemplative document that moves between clips and stills. The ten major topics that organize this two-disc set serve as a base from which to create many branching explorations through the collection.</span><br /><br />Laserdiscs have been difficult to play for some years now, and the disc has been all but unobtainable except for occasional eBay auctions. But aided by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Keller Easterling and producer Tal Schori have reformatted the disc's contents as a two-DVD set. I'm delighted to announce that the collection is now available through Amazon as a three-piece set, each piece of which must be ordered separately.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Call-Home-house-private-enterprise/dp/1481920081/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363470618&amp;sr=1-2-catcorr&amp;keywords=call+it+home+easterling" target="_blank">Program Book</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Call-Home-house-private-enterprise/dp/B00BUV9XO2/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363470538&amp;sr=1-3-catcorr&amp;keywords=call+it+home+easterling" target="_blank">Disc 1</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Call-Home-house-private-enterprise/dp/B00BUBEJI2/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363470506&amp;sr=1-1-catcorr&amp;keywords=call+it+home+easterling" target="_blank">Disc 2</a><br /><br />blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-44383546409907787942013-02-03T23:05:00.000-08:002013-02-03T23:05:31.034-08:00Thinking about the commons in 1997-98<br />In 1997-98 I lived in New York City, where I thought information wanted to be expensive. But while I made my living selling stock footage to media producers (I still do), I'd begun to realize that the system of enclosure surrounding cultural and historical materials was broken and needed to be changed.<br /><br />I'd been reading about the history of landscape and land use in the U.S. and began to think about environmental metaphors for thinking about the distribution of culture. In 1997, I drafted this piece, which I continued to work on through 1998. But then I moved to San Francisco, met Brewster Kahle, started to put my films online, and action substituted for theory. The theory, and my fuller realization of what it meant to give things away to the public online, would come later.<br /><br />Meanwhile, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Eldred">Eric Eldred</a> and Larry Lessig had met one another. Eric, a reader and scholar of Nathaniel Hawthorne and many others, wanted to make free electronic versions of classic books available to the public, but was stymied by copyright extension. As I understand it, Eric elaborated the idea behind what would become Creative Commons, and Lessig worked to put together the team that made it happen.<br /><br />Here, warts, naivete and all, is the last draft of the piece I wrote in 1998, salvaged from an old email:<br /><br />- - - - - - - - - -<br /><br /><br />For an Intellectual Property Preserve<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br /><br />Rick Prelinger<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>January 27, 1998<br /><br />The Problem<br /><br />Our history and culture are increasingly becoming private<br />property rather than public resource.<br /><br />As the potential for widespread and rapid access to our<br />cultural heritage dramatically increases, corporate control<br />of intellectual property threatens to inhibit the freedoms of<br />inquiry and expression. &nbsp;In the past few years, copyright<br />proprietors have pushed for term extension, narrower<br />definitions of fair use and heightened prohibitions against<br />digital copying. &nbsp;"Harmonization" of U.S. copyright law has<br />removed millions of international works from the U.S. public<br />domain.<br /><br />Concurrently, key collections of historical still and moving<br />images have been acquired by powerful entities like The Image<br />Bank (a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak), Getty Images and<br />Corbis. &nbsp;These collections are generally inaccessible without<br />payment of substantial research and licensing fees. &nbsp;Textual<br />material, music and works of art are now owned or controlled<br />by a dwindling number of rightsholders. &nbsp;It is now highly<br />probable that most access to cultural and historical<br />materials will follow the paradigm of "billable events," with<br />few exceptions or discounts for nonprofit or noninstitutional<br />users.<br /><br />The function of not-for-profit entities like libraries,<br />museums and archives is also changing. &nbsp;They no longer exist<br />simply to offer reference or reader's access to their<br />holdings. &nbsp;With the proliferation of authoring tools in all<br />media and the vast increase in all modes of cultural<br />production, many access requests now anticipate the<br />reproduction of materials for reuse and public distribution,<br />and this is running headlong into the limitations of<br />copyright law. &nbsp;Although the Internet is dramatically<br />increasing the population of authors and publishers, there is<br />no concomitant increase in the amount of preexisting content<br />that these people can legally access.<br /><br /><br />The Precedent<br /><br />Private corporations exerted unprecedented pressures on the<br />"public domain" -- American land and natural resources -- in<br />the late 19th and early 20th centuries. &nbsp;The aggressive<br />pursuit of extractive interests such as mining, logging and<br />agriculture threatened to exhaust public lands and encroach<br />upon naturally or culturally significant sites. &nbsp;In response<br />to this threat, the conservationist movement lobbied to<br />organize a system of national forests, parks and monuments. <br />By preserving a limited public sphere not subject to the<br />exercise of private property rights, the benefits of<br />wilderness and cultural sites were preserved for all.<br /><br /><br />The Preserve<br /><br />It's time for a intellectual property preserve that protects<br />words, pictures, sounds, moving images and digital<br />information as public property.<br /><br />Although this idea might sound strange, glimpses of it<br />already exist here and there. &nbsp;Massive repositories of public<br />information (much not subject to copyright) reside in<br />government agencies like the National Archives and Library of<br />Congress. &nbsp;Private initiatives like Project Gutenberg aim to<br />make public domain texts available to the world in electronic<br />form. &nbsp;Many rightsholders and custodians of cultural<br />materials have renounced exclusive right to the content they<br />nominally control.<br /><br />How might an intellectual property preserve work?<br /><br />The Preserve wouldn't seek to be a library, museum or<br />archives, although it might possibly collect physical<br />materials in some cases. &nbsp;Rather, it would be a repository<br />for intellectual property rights that had been donated by<br />rightsholders. &nbsp;These rights would include copyrights, or in<br />the case of public domain materials, the right to reproduce<br />and disseminate the materials. &nbsp;The activities of the<br />Preserve would be closely coordinated with existing<br />institutions, who would often still hold physical materials.<br /><br />The Preserve would contain textual material, still and moving<br />images, works of art, sounds and digital information of all<br />kinds. &nbsp;These assets would be acquired in two ways. &nbsp;First,<br />the Preserve would purchase certain key resources to build up<br />a core collection of content. &nbsp;This activity would<br />necessarily be supported by private funding. &nbsp;Second, after<br />developing a curatorial plan, the Preserve would solicit<br />donations of content. &nbsp;These donations might not necessarily<br />include the physical materials representing the content, but<br />would definitely copyrights or rights to reproduce. <br /><br />Why would copyright owners (or owners of public domain<br />materials) ever cede their properties to the Preserve? <br />First, and perhaps most important, tax incentives. &nbsp;Amend the<br />tax code to allow substantial deductions or tax credits for<br />donating valuable copyrights or materials. &nbsp;Second, key<br />donors might be compensated with funds raised by foundations<br />and private organizations. &nbsp;Third, by recognizing the act of<br />donation as a prestigious deed benefitting the national<br />cultural heritage.<br /><br />The Preserve aims to make a finite but significant portion of<br />our intellectual and cultural property available to one and<br />all -- both individuals and corporations -- for nothing more<br />than the physical costs of duplication and transmission. &nbsp;Its<br />concept supports freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression<br />by preserving the right to quote, to duplicate, to<br />appropriate preexisting material. <br /><br />The Preserve is not an anti-corporate scheme, and it is not<br />meant to compete with existing copyright-based industries. <br />By setting up a parallel public sector where rights to key<br />works (especially historically and culturally significant<br />works) are available at no cost, the Preserve actually<br />strengthens the copyright system. &nbsp;Publishers, media<br />companies and the information industry would enjoy the same<br />right to duplicate and remarket information in the Preserve<br />as anyone else -- but the seventh-grader incorporating<br />historical film clips in her multimedia term paper would no<br />longer have to wonder whether she was violating copyright<br />law.<br /><br /><br />Questions<br /><br />At this point, there are as many questions as there are<br />answers. &nbsp;Some of the questions that might be addressed in a<br />comprehensive study follow:<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Who, and what interests, would need to be convened in<br />order to organize the Preserve?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Should the Preserve be constituted as an independent<br />organization or as a project of an existing entity?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- How will the Preserve's activities be funded?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- How does the Preserve relate to existing institutions<br />and initiatives, such as the American Memory Project at LC;<br />existing digital library initiatives; and task forces on<br />intellectual property rights, such as the forthcoming<br />National Academy of Sciences study?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Is the concept of public/private partnership relevant<br />to how the Preserve might be organized, especially in terms<br />of how public access to the Preserve's materials might be<br />effected?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- How should the Preserve collect materials? &nbsp;Should it<br />collect physical materials of any kind, or should it just be<br />a rights clearinghouse that charges no fees, or nominal<br />handling fees?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Should the Preserve defray the costs of digitization<br />and making works ready for dissemination?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- How will members of the public reproduce works in the<br />Preserve? &nbsp;By contract with institutions that possess the<br />physical works themselves, or by duplicating digital copies<br />held by the Preserve?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- What tax questions arise out of the donation of<br />rights, and is legislation necessary?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- How would rightsholders or custodians of key<br />collections be compensated for ceding their resources to the<br />Preserve?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- On curatorial issues: what kinds of content should be<br />targeted or acquisition?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Questions of copyright vs. questions of contractual<br />control: &nbsp;many public domain collections reside in public and<br />private repositories, but are protected from reuse by<br />contractual considerations<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Could "orphan works" (works whose copyright holder is<br />out of business or unknown) find their way into the Preserve,<br />if legitimate property rights are somehow protected?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Should works that go into the public domain<br />automatically default into the Preserve when they are no<br />longer protected by copyright, thus rendering the Preserve<br />responsible for providing access to users as needed?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>-- Would the Preserve be a national or an international<br />organization? &nbsp;Would its benefits be available<br />internationally?<br />blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-25972101913356518262009-06-22T18:30:00.000-07:002009-06-22T18:35:09.913-07:00Taking history back from the "storytellers"About a month ago, a group of moving image archivists that participate in <a href="http://amianet.org/participate/listserv.php">AMIA-L</a>, one of my favorite listservs, started talking about the problem of poorly-produced (and poorly-thought-out) reenactments, and how they had grown to infect historical documentaries. I was on vacation and couldn't participate in a timely way, but the clear desert air incubated a bit of a rant, a slightly revised version of which I'm now sharing.<br /><br />Please bear in mind that when I say "we," I mean moving image archivists.<br /><br />While there seems to be agreement that the reenactment trend has spread way too far, I think there's a deeper problem facing historically/archivally oriented docs, and it's actually something we can help to solve.<br /><br />Some of the most interesting documentary films take their structures from organic phenomena like the hours of the day, or the trajectory of a river from source to mouth. Others are essays that follow a structured thought process. Still others divide into sequences or parts that need to be understood and compared as discrete units for the film to generate meaning in the viewer. In fact, there are nearly infinite possible documentary structures, of which I think we've only seen a small fraction. By contrast, the mainstream documentary focuses on what's now called "storytelling," a highly traditional representational strategy that in recent years has come to imply the omnipresence of characters (good and evil), a narrative arc and a conventional act-based structure in which seemingly insurmountable problems are frequently solved.<br /><br />Of course, there's nothing wrong with storytelling, whatever it may be, and not all stories are bad. What's wrong is the assumption, which has become not only pervasive but compulsory, that documentaries need characters, that the narrative arc must reign supreme, and that we're obliged to show people wrestling with and resolving problems. I've sat with PBS gatekeepers and heard them refer to programs as "stories," not films or shows. Ultimately this insults potential audiences by assuming they're only able to ingest a limited narrative menu. Is it really true that, when it comes to media, "the best surprise is no surprise?"<br /><br />The vernacular language of documentaries is freezing in place. If I tried to pitch <span style="font-style: italic;">The River</span> today, they'd say "A river? Where's the story? You need to find characters with great stories who live along the banks." If I sought money for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Man with the Movie Camera,</span> I'd be sent back to research more about the cameraman's inner life and emotions, and to find or invent interpersonal (rather than interframe) conflict. Now, there are indeed essay-based makers, like <a href="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=adam%20curtis">Adam Curtis</a>, perhaps Errol Morris, and many others (forgive my lack of knowledge, but I'm not a Netflix guy). Sam Green is now making a film on utopia that I think is not shrinking from ideas, even though it does follow a few people around. And then there's James Benning. But it's just harder to make different work and have it seen.<br /><br />So, where do archives come in? The last 20 years have witnessed the emergence of new kinds of documentation, such as home movies and other unofficial materials. Much of this kind of imagery reflects personal historical perspectives, unlike other kinds of archival material that emanate from institutions, governments, studios and corporations. This is great, but what's happening (especially with amateur material) is that film is being used to construct histories that emphasize personal experience, that rely on the depiction of struggle and transformation at an individual level, and that constitute "stories" in a narrow rather than broad sense. I'm not advocating socialist realism here, just criticizing the reduction of world-historical events and phenomena to the story of "a day in the life of my cranky grandfather who survived the war and is just about to get evicted."<br /><br />Many of us who collect or take care of moving images and sounds feel that original materials tell pretty good stories on their own. Aside from some courageous DVD collections of uncut archival films, a supplement here and there, and several <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger">sketchy</a> sites presenting downloadable archival materials, most original materials don't reach the public without being run through the storytelling Cuisinart. While context is essential to really understand and work with most moving images, overbearing narration, emotionally invasive music and highly personalized visions of history don't constitute context. Bits and pieces from our collections are being woven into works that don't really speak to the value of their components.<br /><br />So, where do we come in? I propose two ideas.<br /><br />The first is easy. Let's put original, unedited archival material out in the world in such a way that it competes with documentaries. This isn't going to kill our stock footage income, because producers and directors always feel they can improve on reality by imposing structures of their design, and they'll still come around. But it will insure that audiences can see original documents without the imposition of artificial layers of narrativity. (Plus, I have always wondered how archives can ethically let historical mediamakers use clips without making the original works from which the clips come available to anyone who wants to see the complete continuity. When someone cites a passage of text or a still image, there's a powerful implication that someone can check the citation themselves. We don't make this easy.)<br /><br />Archives are part of the system of cultural production. So are archivists. Which brings me to a second suggestion.<br /><br />We have all noted that the cost of production and distribution is going down quickly, even though it isn't zero. Why then aren't archivists making more documentaries, and why isn't production seen as an integral archival mission? Why on earth do we observe invisible barriers of specialization that cause producers (whose interests are often fleeting and superficial) to become the chief interpreters and contextualizers of our collections?<br /><br />Librarians write books, too. Museum curators make text and media. Why don't we make more movies? Everyone else in the world feels entitled to.<br /><br />As more and more archivists become curators and preservers of digital files, and as working with physical moving image materials becomes an unjustly underfunded artisanal specialty, we may have to figure out what exactly it is that we do. I suggest we consider becoming moving image authors too.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-74101939654727993332009-04-17T19:58:00.001-07:002009-04-17T20:01:31.972-07:00Seen at the Detroit Public Library last month<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SelCfVTmZaI/AAAAAAAAACc/FusdkpesQHA/s1600-h/wornoutglobeDetroit1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SelCfVTmZaI/AAAAAAAAACc/FusdkpesQHA/s400/wornoutglobeDetroit1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325861140405052834" border="0" /></a>blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-56443246695456922752009-04-17T19:33:00.001-07:002009-04-17T20:02:08.741-07:00Media in Transition conferenceOK, I'm going to try to be a better blogger. But it's been hard — the combined effort I pour into Facebook, Twitter and email feels like an unpaid, half-time job.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm attending the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit6/">Media in Transition</a> conference at MIT next week. It looks <a href="http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit6/subs/abstracts.html">great</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-1578459774423633402009-03-11T17:39:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:32:11.763-07:00Anyone want a partial run of Printer's Ink magazine?Ad historians, culture historians, collectors: We have a partial duplicate set of Printers Ink (the weekly, not the monthly), starting about 1927 and running through 1957. Some volumes great condition, others not. We would be delighted to offer it to someone with an interest in this material and the ability to pick up in downtown SF, as it's too much to ship.<br /><br />It is full of interesting copy and fascinating ads about the ad industry. Let me know!<br /><br />--> Printers Ink found a home.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-77399978770814361262008-09-13T23:09:00.000-07:002008-09-13T23:12:58.205-07:00New films starting to trickle onlineThanks to <a href="http://www.avgeeks.com/">AV Geek Skip</a>, new films from our collection are starting to come online. Many of them are as new to me as they will be to you. Check out the latest uploads <a href="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aprelinger&amp;sort=-publicdate">here</a>.<br /><br />Oh -- this is a repeat post, I see. Whatever.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-82018418826749056502008-09-02T07:24:00.001-07:002008-09-02T07:32:36.153-07:00New films coming onlineFor most of the year we've been promising that we'd upload 500 new films to our collection at the Internet Archive. This has taken longer than we anticipated, and we're sorry to have dangled this possibility in front of our archival fan community for such a long time. The reason for the delay has been that this year we started our "tapelessness" project — a project to convert all of our material presently living on Digital Beta and Beta SP videotape to high-bitrate digital files — and wanted to make the digital files for the Archive at the same time we were making our own. This is a complex workflow and we're still experimenting with getting it right, but I'm delighted to say that new films are starting to trickle onto the Archive site. It's going to be a diverse bunch of material with many items that haven't been seen in quite a few years.<br /><br />Watch <a href="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aprelinger&amp;sort=-publicdate">this link</a> for new items as they appear.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-37961311914678329862008-09-01T21:18:00.000-07:002008-09-01T21:27:53.229-07:00Remembering Bill O'Farrell<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLy_olrAP6I/AAAAAAAAABU/GZYUoGPkI_M/s1600-h/bill1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLy_olrAP6I/AAAAAAAAABU/GZYUoGPkI_M/s400/bill1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241274770380570530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLzAgEdUTMI/AAAAAAAAAB0/0_QjJoC6owE/s1600-h/bill3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLzAgEdUTMI/AAAAAAAAAB0/0_QjJoC6owE/s400/bill3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241275723537468610" border="0" /></a>Bill was an uncommonly kind, generous and convivial person, a sympathetic enabler of archival activity and a collector and redistributor of evidence that might help to contextualize films that seemed without history. We will all miss him. We're thinking of his loved ones.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLy_0v_18hI/AAAAAAAAABc/F6eXwPiiGFU/s1600-h/bill2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SLy_0v_18hI/AAAAAAAAABc/F6eXwPiiGFU/s400/bill2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241274979310760466" border="0" /></a>blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-42043040515012294022008-05-23T10:19:00.000-07:002008-05-23T10:39:08.016-07:00Coming to Berlin and BudapestI'm doing a mini-Grand Tour in June, <a href="http://www.fdk-berlin.de/de/arsenal/programmtext-anzeige/article/1300/304.html?cHash=6748078fb2">presenting</a> at the Deutsche Kinemathek's <a href="http://www.fdk-berlin.de/de/arsenal/programmtext-anzeige/article/1301/304.html?cHash=361db6084d">Kolloquium</a> on Friday, June 13; doing a screening that afternoon and then two evening screenings on Sunday and Monday, June 15 and 16. The schedule is <a href="http://www.fdk-berlin.de/nc/de/arsenal/kalender.html?tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Boffset%5D=1212962400&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Bdatefrom%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Bdateto%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Btargetgroups%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Bcategories%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Blocations%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Borganizers%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Bsword%5D=&amp;tx_skcalendar_pi1%5Bview%5D=week">here</a>. Berliners and travelers, please come and say hi.<br /><br />Note that the June 16 program will be an all-35mm show, featuring the recently restored <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936">Master Hands</a>,</span> the even-more recently restored <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/Tuesdayi1945"><span style="font-style: italic;">Tuesday in November</span></a> (a project of Mark Toscano at the Academy Film Archive) and a vintage IB Technicolor and SuperScope print of Chevrolet's Populuxe classic, <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/American1958"><span style="font-style: italic;">American Look.</span></a><br /><br />Then on June 19-21 I'll be in Budapest for the NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) <a href="http://www.necs-initiative.org/">conference</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-25708451924248484612008-05-23T10:12:00.000-07:002008-05-23T10:55:18.925-07:00Microsoft ends Live Book Search programThis morning MSFT <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/05/23/book-search-winding-down.aspx">announced</a> it was ending its Live Book Search program, and will be taking the site down next week. They're also ending their support of key digitization initiatives, including many of the library scanning projects operated by the Internet Archive.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.prelingerlibrary.org/">Prelinger Library</a> books that MSFT paid to scan will still be available through the <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger_library">Internet Archive</a> and the <a href="http://openlibrary.org/">Open Library</a>, which also offers <a href="http://openlibrary.org/advanced">full-text search</a> and download of over 300,000 public domain books.<br /><br />The blogosphere is buzzing on this and I anticipate hearing more today.<br /><br />Brewster has just posted an announcement, with some <a href="http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=194217">good news</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-6600395810105731722008-05-03T22:20:00.000-07:002008-05-03T22:21:47.821-07:00We had fun today at MakerFaireAbout 200 people visited our little satellite library in the Fiesta building. If you can, come by tomorrow!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157604872183249/">Photos</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-62598163961715267952008-04-29T00:31:00.000-07:002008-04-29T00:37:27.334-07:00Mock Up On MuJust saw Craig Baldwin's new (and, he says, unfinished) film. It is beautifully done. Whatever limits it may have, and I can't pin down any walls it might hit until I've seen it again, will be the limits of found-footage films, not any deficits of his skill and imagination. The <a href="http://sf360.org/features/craig-baldwin-shoots-the-moon-and-the-desert">first interview</a> is pretty good.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-82885949351357349842008-04-28T17:19:00.001-07:002008-04-28T17:26:02.484-07:00Google peers into our living room, and sees...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SBZqpE5SEnI/AAAAAAAAABE/14xentFij6M/s1600-h/home_window.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hdf8EV0KO6Y/SBZqpE5SEnI/AAAAAAAAABE/14xentFij6M/s400/home_window.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194456474139628146" border="0" /></a>M first found this on Google Street View. It points up at our living room, and you can distinctly see the split reel behind the window, though you can't see the Elmo (a special kind of projector used to make quick-and-dirty film-to-video transfers) to which it's attached.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-18945880800500747612008-04-28T17:00:00.001-07:002008-04-28T17:00:51.111-07:00how could I forget?<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157604281491715/">Pix from the Orphan Film Symposium in March</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-55687458483304579262008-04-28T16:53:00.000-07:002008-04-28T16:57:58.150-07:00Murketing's Virtual Festival of Sponsored FilmRob Walker writes <a href="http://www.murketing.com/journal/?cat=2">"Consumed"</a> for the <span style="font-style: italic;">NY Times Magazine</span> and keeps up quite a pace with the <a href="http://www.murketing.com">Murketing</a> blog. In the last week he's been <a href="http://www.murketing.com/journal/?cat=65">viewing, reviewing and contextualizing</a> a bunch of films from the <a href="http://www.filmpreservation.org/projects/fieldguide.html">Field Guide</a>, five so far. This is exciting.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-35927866923764440012008-04-28T13:29:00.001-07:002008-04-28T13:46:29.105-07:00Recent presentationsI recently attended the <a href="http://www.debalie.nl/dossierpagina.jsp?dossierid=208416">Economies of the Commons conference</a> at <a href="http://www.debalie.nl/">de Balie</a> in Amsterdam. This was at once a provocative and congenial meeting, and it was fascinating to hear from people who are working on major national moving image digitization projects in Europe and from members of the "freer culture" community. The sessions were blogged <a href="http://research.imagesforthefuture.org/economies-of-the-commons-blog-posts/">here</a> and elsewhere.<br /><br />My keynote, "Audiovisual Archives and the Social Contract" is <a href="http://www.prelinger.com/EconomiesoftheCommons.pdf">downloadable here</a>, but beware, as it is a 24MB pdf.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-67409834965106261632007-11-21T09:51:00.000-08:002007-11-21T09:55:45.962-08:00Future Histories keynoteThis was a great conference, intimate enough to get to know almost everyone and to have really interesting discussions. The organizers put together a memorable event and the Northern hospitality was heartwarming.<br /><br />A few resources:<br /><br />My <a href="http://www.prelinger.com/FutureHistories.pdf">keynote</a> (pdf, 10.8MB)<br />My <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157603211653658/">photoset</a>, mostly people<br />The conference <a href="http://myblogs.sunderland.ac.uk/blogs/futurehistories/">program and abstracts</a><br /><br />Many of the papers will probably be published in a future issue of <a href="http://con.sagepub.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Convergence</span></a> (which unfortunately seems to be behind a paywall).blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-52703609152688449292007-11-14T08:04:00.000-08:002007-11-14T08:07:33.174-08:00Future Histories of the Moving ImageI'm off to the UK to speak at this very promising <a href="http://www.futurehistories.net/">conference</a> (you will have to click on "conference" to see the program). Stay tuned for more from Sunderland.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-11948316526572461882007-11-14T08:01:00.000-08:002007-11-14T08:04:45.618-08:00San Francisco Bay oil spillMegan (who is trained as an oil spill responder) has been activated and is working up at <a href="http://www.ibrrc.org/">International Bird Rescue Research Center</a> in Cordelia. IBRRC's <a href="http://intbirdrescue.blogspot.com/">blog</a> is updated regularly and gives a good sense of what they're dealing with up there.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-70414082195887484212007-11-05T07:25:00.000-08:002007-11-14T08:09:34.349-08:00DLF Forum, PhiladelphiaWorking on my talk. <a href="http://www.diglib.org/forums/fall2007/2007fallprogram.htm">It's</a> about to start.<br /><br />Later: The organizers posted the <a href="http://www.diglib.org/forums/fall2007/presentations/Prelinger.pdf">pdf</a>, but it lacks my notes, so you will have to interpret the pretty pictures for yourself.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-3962129101133337872007-10-30T17:39:00.000-07:002007-10-30T17:40:42.029-07:00OCA digitization contractBy permission of the Boston Public Library and Internet Archive, here is their <a href="http://www.archive.org/download/bostonpubliclibrary/BLPagreementnosignatures.pdf">book digitization contract</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-10319039680784643222007-10-20T15:40:00.000-07:002007-10-20T15:51:14.722-07:00VeniceI hadn't known what to expect; in fact, that was my perspective on Italy in general.<br /><br />Venice's feeling of historicity is overwhelming, and it is filled, jammed with tourists, but there are quieter parts where families and children predominate. Built on the lagoon, water is both frame and circulatory system. All public transportation on the center islands is waterborne, and the <span style="font-style: italic;">vaporetti</span> pull up to the dock, disgorge and load passengers, and pull away faster than buses in most cities. When for the first time I exited the railroad station onto the plaza that lay between me and the canal, I saw boats of all shapes and sizes moving in every direction, a crowded, purposeful waterscape, and I found myself overcome with emotion, for I wasn't just lucky enough to see a living relic of the past, I was seeing one possible utopian future, the water city.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157602559420001/">Pictures</a>.<br /><br />Oh, and we hadn't planned our trip to coincide with the Biennale, but there it was, and there were few restrictions on shooting pictures, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157602556047166/">so</a>.<br /><br />And one day we went to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157602557316776/">Gorizia</a>, a border town, and walked into Slovenia.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-7586388442718419302007-10-06T04:29:00.000-07:002007-10-09T09:34:05.681-07:00PordenoneHere at <a href="http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/">Le Giornate del Cinema Muto</a>. Pictures <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157602289692642/">accumulating</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579650042970528683.post-18387634230023327062007-10-04T10:49:00.000-07:002007-10-18T11:57:49.967-07:00Illuminated Corridor last nightThis was wonderful.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/footage/sets/72157602254128332/">Our pix</a>; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nchoz/sets/72157602257209540/">Nicole's pix</a> (great); and check <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=illuminated%20corridor&amp;w=46213661%40N00">Boltron's panoramas</a>!<br /><br />And also see <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=illuminated%20corridor&amp;w=55961052%40N00">Dill Pixels</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_nicole_harvey/sets/72157602262017000/">thenicoleharvey</a>, and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=85178935@N00&amp;q=illuminatedcorridor&amp;m=tags">Amor de Cosmos</a>.<br /><br />And, two weeks later, Tara McDowell's <a href="http://www.shotgun-review.com/archives/san_francisco_cinematheque/prelinger_on_prelinger.html">review</a>.blackoystercatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17480345262232861066noreply@blogger.com1